This weekend was a light weekend for racing options. There was the Paluxy Pedal in Glen Rose, the DRC 15k in Dallas, the CALF 5k in FW, and the Clark Gardens Half and 5k in Weatherford.
While I'd considered passing on this weekend, I had a good week of workouts, and wanted to finish the week strong. I finally made the decision to register on Thursday, but, alas, the online registration had ended. After a quick call to the venue, I felt fairly confident that I would go and register on race day.
I went into this one a little concerned, as I had not competed this distance since early April, and, my recent 15k had been ugly. But, the alarm went off this morning and off I went.
This event caps at 200 runners, so, not quite the congestion of the other half marathons I'd run. I arrived to temps in the high 40's...a little cold, but, I knew it would warm up quickly.
My plan was to go out easy, and try to maintain 10:15 - 10:30 mile, with hopes of speeding up during the last 5k.
This run was different in that much of the run was on trails. Not a bad thing, just different.
A few complaints on this one:
- after seeing a water stop at 1.5 miles with a portalet, there was not another water stop until 5.5 miles, and, no portalet. I didn't find a portalet until about mile 7. That sucked, as I needed to pee.
- Loose dogs. On a few occasions, dogs came out and harassed runners, nipping at heels, etc. I was one of the runners that had to deal with it. I guess that will happen when you run out in the middle of nowhere.
Other than that, not a bad event. I fought through a heel blister for the last 5 miles or so, but, ran the whole way.
I was actually somewhat pleased, as my time was about the same as my 13.1 times in the spring, and I had not trained at all for this distance this fall.
Per Strava (garmin) 13.2 in 2:18:52. 10:26 per mile.
At this distance, I'll never be competitive, but I'm always pleased to complete the longer races.
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